The Private Life of Saints
by Sierrapeyton
Summary: <html><head></head>Where does the Boss of the Saints come from? What is his history? What losses has he suffered through? What secrets does he keep? Where are his lieutenants from? What are their histories? Why did they join the Saints? Find out in this story! Story based during Saints Row 2. All rights go to Volition and THQ (2014 Deep Silver) Also, for the sake of this story, Carlos is alive</html>
1. Chapter 1: The Big Secret

A/N I hope you like this chapter, this story is a slightly revamped version of the one that I was previously working on. This chapter one is, I believe, completely different than the original and I hope it is much better. I tried a lot harder this time and I think that it paid off. Tell me what you think about this story and don't forget to review. All rights go to Volition and THQ (And as of 2014, Deep Silver ) I own no part of Saints Row, excluding Oc's that I will introduce later.

The Boss of the Third Street Saints had been feeling guilty, he was harbouring a secret that didn't involve him alone. For years he'd wanted to tell the other person the truth, but he could never find the right time.

The big issue? The Boss felt like he couldn't keep the secret anymore. He needed to find a way to bring up the subject without it feeling awkward or angering the other person involved . The best way to do that? Bring alcohol into the equation.

The Boss briefly recalled a conversation that he'd once had with the person in question. In the conversation, they had just so happened talked about their favorite alcoholic beverages, and the other person's had been Gin. The Boss remembered that there was a Brown Baggers in Rebadeaux, he was at the strip club T'N'Ay, which was within walking distance of the small liquor store.

A few minutes later, The Boss was making his way to Bavogian Plaza, where the Saint's Headquarters was located. He had bought a bottle of cheap Gin and a few blunts. He hoped that the blunts would help his case when he finally came clean about his secret.

The Boss thought about his secret then. It was a secret that he'd kept for ten years, ever since he was fifteen and had originally been recruited into the Saints. He was twenty five at this point, and it was time to let go. He just hoped that telling the truth wouldn't backfire.

The Boss arrived at the Headquarters shortly after. He walked through the door and out of the street level part of the building, and down the stairs in the room to the left. He came into the run down motel only to find his four lieutenants, Johnny Gat, Pierce Washington, Shaundi, and Carlos Mendoza all sitting on one of the dirty couches located in the center of the room, watching a news report about the Saint's recent exploits. The four turned away from the television when they heard their leader walking down the rusted stairs.

Gat took in the brown bag that The Boss was carrying with a smirk.

"Yo Boss, it's not even nine p.m. and you already bout to get fucking wasted?" The Boss laughed darkly at Gat's comment,

"Yeah Johnny. Something like that." Gat laughed too and cheerfully replied,

"Well let's not waste any time. I don't have to work tomorrow so I'm clear to get shitfaced!" The Boss just rolled his eyes at Gat and pulled out the bottle of Gin. Gat's eyes widened in surprise behind his dark shades.

"Damn, Boss, is it my fucking birthday or something? The Boss shook his no and Gat didn't question him further.

Shaundi walked over to the bar and returned with five shot glasses. The Boss popped the top on the Gin and filled each glass. The five Saints hit their glasses together and quickly gulped down their shots.

Half an hour and several shots later, The Boss felt like he was ready to reveal his long kept secret. He just hoped that the other person was ready to hear it.

"Johnny, can I ask you a question?" Gat looked at him with a smirk on his face,

"Yeah, I suppose so, I'm still sober. A bit, anyway." The Boss laughed loudly and smiled.

"Okay, where are you from?" The smirk disappeared from Gat's face, and for a minute, The Boss wondered if he'd made him angry. But after a minute passed, Gat answered his question, but it had sounded like he was forcing himself to do so.

"StillWater. The Suburbs District." The Boss nodded, taking the fact that Gat had answered him at all as a good sign. He steeled himself, and asked Gat another, more personal question.

"What about family? Where are your parents?" Gat noticeably tensed, he looked like a cobra ready to strike. Despite this, his reply came out strangely calm.

"I would really rather not talk about my family. It's kind of a touchy subject for me, maybe I even consider it a taboo. Let's just say that I don't like talking about them." The Boss had him right where he needed him.

"Come on Johnny! The only way that it would be a taboo is if you were adopted or something. But you were adopted, weren't you?" Gat was on his feet in an instant, and so was The Boss. Gat stared at his longtime friend with a vicious snarl on his face. He tried to speak, but his words came out sounding strangled.

"How-, how the fuck did you know that I was adopted? Who fucking told you?" The Boss didn't seem fazed by Gat's outburst, and if he was, he hid it extremely well.

"My mother told me, Johnny. And I know that you were adopted because I'm your brother."

The Boss barely had time to react before Gat punched him straight in the face and pain exploded in his jaw.

A/N I hope that you enjoyed this chapter. I'm really enjoying writing about the possibility of the Boss and his most trusted lieutenant having an even more personal relationship. I think that it suites the two. Anyway, tell me what you think about the idea I'm working with and tell me how you think that the next chapter should play out. Also, obviously Carlos is alive in my story. I hated his death in the real game and decided to let him live.


	2. Chapter 2: A Much Deserved Explanation

A/N This chapter picks up directly after the cliffhanger from chapter one. It will be centered around the Boss explaining Gat's adoption to him . This will be one of several more Gat and The Boss chapters, then the story will move onto someone else. I should also mention that the man in front of Gat in my cover photo is my Saint Row 2 Boss. I hope you enjoy and Please review!

The Boss stumbled backwards, his ears were ringing. Gat had punched him as hard as he could right in the face. Gat was already aiming at him again, but the Boss was ready for him this time . Gat threw a punch aimed at The Boss's head; The Boss reflexively ducked down low and sent a counter punch to Gat's left side, hitting him straight in the ribs. Gat's eyes flashed in anger and pain, but the Boss didn't let him just stand there for long. He sent the hardest kick he could straight to the kneecap that Gat had been shot in years before.

Gat screamed in pain, and collapsed onto the ground, supporting himself on his uninjured knee. He didn't give up though, he tried to force himself into a standing position, but the pain in his leg was too intense. So Gat did something he had never, ever done or even thought about doing before; he pulled a gun out of his backpocket and aimed it at The Boss.

Fury flashed in The Boss's startling blue eyes and he tackled Gat the rest of the way to the floor. Gat tried to wrestle his way out from under The Boss, but to no avail. The Boss fought relentlessly for the gun that Gat was still attempting to aim at him. The Boss realized that Gat wasn't going to give up, and he was going to have to subdue him . So the Boss moved his hands from Gat's arms and placed them on his neck. Gat's eyes widened in shock as he realized what The Boss was going to do, but he didn't stop fighting.

The Boss steadily applied increasing amounts of pressure to Gat's neck, until he was sure that Gat was unable to breathe. But Gat continued fighting, and The Boss continued squeezing until he could tell by the way Gat stopped thrashing that Gat's consciousness was quickly fading. The Boss released Gat then, and got off of him. He stepped back, and Gat sat up, breathing hard. He looked winded, but the Boss obviously hadn't seriously injured him. The Boss stared down at Gat for a second before he spoke.

"Johnny, are you done trying to kill me? Are you ready to let me give you a motherfucking explanation?" Gat looked at his leader with barely contained rage.

"Fuck. Give me the damn explanation." Gat said through gritted teeth. The Boss nodded and reached a hand down to Gat. Gat hesitated briefly before he took The Boss's hand and allowed himself to be hauled up from the floor. He tried to put pressure on his sore knee, and found it immensely difficult. He sat down on the couch and waited. The Boss gathered his jumbled mess of thoughts into one, comprehensible thought. He started his story with only the parts that Gat needed to know.

"Okay, our mother was eighteen at the time she had you, just barely out of High School. Our dad was twenty and working a low paying job, and neither of them had any family to turn to. They barely had any money coming in. Their only two options were to put you up for adoption, or give you a rough life. They chose to give you to a family who they thought could provide you with the stable lifestyle that they wouldn't be able to." The Boss paused for a second to catch his breath, and chanced a look at Gat. Gat was watching him closely and absorbing everything that he heard. He was obviously checking for flaws and inconsistencies in The Boss's story, but he found none.

The Boss continued his tale from where he'd left off.

"Anyway, our parents met with the adoption agent when you were six weeks old. The agent found a family that would take you almost instantly. She knew an older woman who couldn't have kids of her own, and the woman and her husband had specifically wanted to adopt a baby of a different ethnicity than them. When the adoption agent showed the couple your baby picture, they knew that you were the child that they wanted. They met with our parents and hit it off, and the older couple was given legal custody of you a few months later. The adoption process hadn't taken long in this circumstance because your biological parents were directly giving you away. Our parents kept in touch with your adoptive family until you were around twenty, then they lost contact with them."

Gat looked shocked but he said nothing, which gave The Boss cue to continue.

"I already knew that you were my brother because when I turned fifteen, I joined the Saints. When mom found out, she told me that Johnny Gat was my brother. She knew that I'd meet you because you had joined The Saints before she'd lost contact with your adoptive family. They'd told her that you'd joined The Saints not long after you told them." Gat bowed his head then, clearly believing The Boss's story.

"Boss, why the fuck are you laying this shit on me now? It's been ten fucking years and your just now telling me? Why now?" Pain flashed across The Boss's eyes and he took a deep, steadying breath.

"I'm telling you this now because our mom has cancer, she doesn't have more than a year left."

A/N More on Gat's background story next chapter. I'm also going to be experimenting with flashback chapters to help explain the Saints lifes before joining the gang. By the way, I'm kind of struggling with this fanfict. I feel like my writing style is off (as always), so if someone can give me some tips about how to write as fluently as possible, I'd be grateful. Please review!


	3. Chapter 3: Dad of the Saints

A/N Last chapter about The Boss and Gat for now. (The Boss's name is revealed this chapter!). I'm thinking about writing a couple chapters about Shaundi's life and history. Then I will move on to Carlos, and last and definitely least, I will move onto Pierce (Because nobody gives a fuck about Pierce). I'd like to give a shout-out to Tha Man 187 for being the first person to post a review for this fanfiction, thank you, I really appreciate it. Chapter 3 takes place where chapter two left off.

Gat stared at The Boss in absolute shock. He felt terrible for him. Sure the dying woman was Gat's mom too, but he didn't know her, hadn't been raised by her. He didn't have any type of relationship with her, but The Boss did, and it was clearly taking it's toll on him. Gat understood why The Boss was telling him everything now, until this very moment there had been something present that was now gone . That something was time, The Boss had told Gat that the cancer was progressing quickly and would consume their mother's body within a year. Time was now of the essence, Gat realized that meeting his mother had become a dire situation.

It was time for Gat to meet his parents, but he didn't know if he was ready. The Boss and Gat were standing outside of a run down house. The paint was peeling off of the sides of the house and the windows were badly broken in some places. But Gat didn't care about the sad condition of the house, he cared only about the people the house sheltered.

Gat became anxious and considered leaving but when he was about to, the door to the house opened. An Asian man standing at about 6'4 stood in the doorway, he had the same strange blue eyes as The Boss, and the same exact eyeshape that Gat himself had. The man grinned when he saw The Boss, and he approached him without hesitation.

"Raider! The fuck took you so long?" The Boss cringed, and Gat realized what the man that he assumed was his and The Boss's father had done. He'd accidentally given Gat The Boss's real name. People had been trying to get it out of him for ten years, and then in a flash someone randomly gave it up. Gat knew that he shouldn't, but he couldn't resist taunting The Boss with the new revelation.

"Raider? Really? That's the name that you were too ashamed to tell anyone about?" Raidon's blue eyes turned hard extremely fast, and Gat knew that he'd went too far. Raider didn't hesitate, he just went off on Gat.

"Shut the fuck up Gat! You don't know what that hell your talking about. You don't realize that I never told people my name to fucking protect you!" Gat didn't understand what Raider was referring to, but the absolute fury written across his brother's face was palpable, so Gat didn't push him. Gat had learned his lesson earlier when Raider's hands had closed around his throat. Gat suppressed a shiver thinking about it. Raider and Gat's father glanced in Gat's direction then, his face changed from joy to shock in a matter of seconds. He looked like he was seeing a ghost from his past, and in a way, he was. He was actually seeing a grown up, tatted up, tall and muscular version of the baby he and his young wife had put up for adoption thirty years before. He didn't know how he knew that the grown man standing in front of him was his son, but it was obvious to the emotional father that this was his boy.

Gat tensed under the scrutiny of his dad. He felt wound up, but he wanted to know his dad, needed to know his dad, so Gat was the first of the two to speak.

"Hey, dad." Gat realized how weak the statement was, but it was all that he could manage. It was enough for his father though, and an instant later Gat was being one arm hugged by the man who had given him up. Gat, not really being the hugging type of person, stood there ackwardly. Gat's father noticed his reaction and released him, he raised his closed fist for Gat to bump. Gat hit his fist against his dad's and laughed. For the first time in his entire life, Gat's father spoke to him.

"Well Johnny, I don't know whether or not you want to call me your father considering our fucked circumstances, so in case you don't, my name is Draydon Brent." Gat nodded and and chuckled darkly. Draydon looked at his son, but said nothing. He waited for Gat to explain what was on his mind. When Gat finally did, Draydon listened carefully.

"Well Draydon Brent, I will be calling you dad from now on because my adoptive father and I no longer have a healthy relationship. He couldn't deal with being a part of the life that I've chosen to live, so I left home." Draydon stood there momentarily lost in his thoughts, he wasn't criticizing Gat for joining a gang, the son that he'd raised had joined the same gang years later. Draydon knew why Raider had joined The Saints, but not why Gat had. He decided that it wasn't the right time to ask personal questions, especially questions that would force Gat to explain himself.

But it was time for Gat to finally meet his mother.

A/N Like I mentioned in my first author's note, I'm going to be doing Shaundi chapters next . The way that it's going to work will be me posting three to four chapters about Gat specifically, Raider specifically, or both of them together. Then I will do a chapter or two about one of the other lieutenants, then the story will loop back to wherever the last Raider/Gat chapter ended and pick up there. It'll be sort of like a story within a story. So the next chapter or two will be in Shaundi's perspective.

{To clarify, here are the two new names in the story and who they belong to, The Boss will rarely be called by his usual title after this point}

Raider Brent- Leader of Third Street Saints

Draydon Brent- Father of Raider and Gat


	4. Chapter 4: An Unexpected Turn of Events

A/N I really don't know what to make of this chapter. Is it good? Is it bad? I can't say so i'll let you decide. (Next chapter will be Raider and Gat)

Shaundi's head was throbbing painfully, she had been having srvere migraines for weeks now, and the incessant beeping of moniters from some far off room didn't help her in the least. She had been breathing through her mouth for the past half hour so that she didn't have to smell the repugnant mixture of alcohol, cigarettes, and cologne that permeated the air inde the waiting room of the crowded doctors office. Shaundi really didn't want to be here, and every time that some lucky person got called to see the doctor, she sank a little lower in her seat. Shaundi had become exceptionally good friends with the "Porcelain God" the past few days, and she thought that she knew why.

She and The Boss had gotten drunk with the rest of the gang a few weeks before, Johnny had brought one of the bottles of Everclear that he'd stolen and hidden from Aisha's prying eyes. Pierce had passed out after half a shot, not that they'd expected more from him, shockingly enough, the powerful liquor had been too much for Gat, and he too passed our after nearly four shots. Carlos had drank one shot and had started on his second before he'd rushed into the bathroom to throw up. The poor kid, he'd been twenty one for six months, had barely managed to build a tolerance for beer let alone Everclear. So once everyone else had passed out or otherwise became incapacitated, Shaundi and The Boss had ventured into his room and had sex. It had been a split second decision. They weren't together, though Shaundi wasn't sure if she wanted them to be. The Boss had used a condom, which had come out of an unopened package, so Shaundi had thought that it was from a new box.

When The Boss had woken up the next morning and found her still in his bed, he'd asking her to go to his dresser and get him a shirt. She'd obliged, but as she was sorting through the clothes in the mahogany wood dresser, she'd come across the box of condoms. Curious, Shaundi had checked for the brand's name, but instead found the expiration date, she was shocked to see that the condoms had been expired for almost two years. Shaundi hadn't thought anything of it until last week, when her period hadn't come. This wasn't right, and she knew it. Ever since she'd had her very first period, it had come like clockwork. Then the other symptoms arose, and Shaundi had gotten scared.

Shaundi had broken down in tears when she'd taken the disposable pregnancy test and it had read positive. But those things aren't always trustworthy, right? But Shaundi knew that the way she'd been lashing out at everyone wasn't normal. She was always the mellow, sweet girl that loved to party. She'd never been the bitch that she'd been acting like lately. She felt she didn't know who she was anymore. The thought of losing herself scared her deeply, so more tears had come. This had happened yesterday, not long after The Boss and Gat had left. She was glad that they'd left before she'd lost her grip. Pierce hadn't been home, but Carlos had been.

Carlos normally tried to stay out of the way, but Shaundi was his friend. He wasn't going to stand there and watch her cry alone. So when he had found her, he'd tried to start a conversation with her, but she'd been too upset to speak. Carlos had simply sat on the faded blue couch with her and wrapped his arms around her slim shoulders to comfort her. When Shaundi had calmed down some, she had taken his hand in hers and squeezed it so hard that he thought that his entire hand was coming off. Shaundi didn't offer an explanation, so Carlos didn't ask for one. Shaundi had sighed and simply said,

"Carlos, I'm screwed. I'm fucking screwed!" Carlos hadn't known what to say so he he'd just sat there. Shaundi had ended up showing him the positive pregnancy test and he'd offered to take her to the hospital.

Carlos had asked her if she needed him to be there, but Shaundi had told him that she needed to do this alone.

She regretted that now, because the nurse had just called her name.

"Ms. Shaundi?" Shaundi stood up slowly, she knew that she needed to know the the truth, but that didn't make it easier for her. She'd already decided that if she was pregnant, she was keeping it. Abortion was an option for most women, but not for Shaundi. She didn't want to regret getting pregnant and killing her child. Her older sister, Faylene had done that exact thing four years before, and not a day went by that Faylene didn't wish that she could go back in time.

Adoption wasn't an option anymore either. Not after Shaundi had watched Gat struggle so much with the truth. She couldn't bear the thought of causing someone that much emotional pain, especially not her own child. So the only thing that Shaundi could do would be to raise the baby, no matter how much bullshit that the decision might cause. Shaundi realized that she'd drifted off into her thoughts, and the nurse was still waiting for her. Only a second had passed, but it felt like a lifetime. She walked over to the nurse and was led into a hallway behind the glass windowed receptionist counter. The nurse instructed her to go into the second room on the left of the long and narrow hallway, and wait for the doctor. The waiting was the worst part for Shaundi.

One hour later...

Shaundi watched the doctor's face as he performed the ultrasound. When he moved the scanner over a particulary sensitive area of Shaundi's slightly bloated stomach, she winced and shifted her position on the white paper sheets. As soon as her position changed, the doctor's face changed . He no longer looked impassive, he looked wary now. He took a breath then broke the news to Shaundi.

"Well, Shaundi, the reason that you haven't been feeling well is because you're pregnant. Based on the ultrasound, I can tell that you probably conceived about five weeks ago. You know that you have opt-."

"The hell I do! I'm keeping this fucking baby." Shaundi yelled, efficiently cutting off the stunned doctor. Shaundi felt guilty almost instantly, she knew that the doctor was just trying to do his job. so she astonished him by apologizing.

"I-. I'm -. I'm so sorry! I don't why I yelled at you. I don't usually act like a bitch." To her surprise, the doctor laughed.

"Don't worry about it. I'm a father of three with another one on the way, so believe me, I know that a pregnant woman is the devil in disguise." Shaundi burst out laughing hysterically.

"Fuck doc, really? The devil in disguise? That's a bit melodramatic, isn't it?" The doctor wasn't smiling anymore.

"Spend five minutes with my wife and you'll say that my statement was completely justified." Shaundi just rolled her eyes and thanked the doctor after he handed her a sheet of paper with the date of her next appointment. As she was about to leave, the doctor grabbed Shaundi's arm to prevent her from walking out. His face was serious, all hints of joy gone from it.

"Don't forget that you have options." Was all he said to Shaundi before releasing her arm. Shaundi nodded and left the doctor's office, walking in the general direction of Carlos's black Eiswolf. The whole way home she was wondering how she was going to break the news to The Boss.

A/N So what did you think? I don't know how well I did on this chapter, but I hope that it was good. Next chapter will deal with a lot of family stuff between Raider and Gat and their parents, and now some more emotional turmoil for Raider. Please review, reviews motivate me to keep writing and improve.


	5. Chapter 5: History Explained

A/N OK, so there were some inconsistencies in my timing in the previous chapter, I meant that The Boss and Gat left the SAME day that Shaundi found out that she was pregnant. The part about Shaundi actually seeing the doctor and being told happens just after Chapter 3 ends. This chapter takes place minutes after where chapter 3 leaves off. Sorry that I got confused, I'll revise chapter 4 later. (It's hard trying to write storylines separately) I also need to revise the chapter schedule, the different perspective chapters aren't going to happen as I originally thought. (I'll still write Carlos and Pierce chapters, but they might be far off)

Raider and Gat stood side by side in the cluttered living room of the house that the former had been raised in. The tattered furniture and raggedy yellow curtains covering the badly damaged windows looked exactly the same as he remembered. Raider beamed at Gat when he noticed him sniffing the air, which smelled faintly of lasagne, their mom's specialty. Gat didn't return the smile, he just stood still, looking surprisingly nervous.

"Johnny I don't think I've ever seen you look so on edge, I think the expression really suites you. Maybe put a little more pout into your lips, and every bitch would kill to have you ." Raider thought that making Gat laugh would relax him some, and as Raider had anticipated, it seemed to. Gat's hands unclenched and he rolled his stiff shoulders to get the kinks out of them before responding

"Yeah, fuck you too, I'm better looking than your ugly ass will ever be. I don't know how the fuck you aren't still a virgin." Raider eyed Gat warily before replying.

"Johnny how the hell do you know that I'm not a virgin? I don't remember talking to you about my goddamned sex life!" For a minute, the only response from Gat that Raider received was a low chuckle, until Gat saw the indignant look on his younger brother's face.

"You're right, Raider ", Gat began, pausing momentarily as he said the name, "you never told me about your sex life, but that doesn't mean that Lin never did ." Raider's cheeks turned bright red and he turned away, coughing so he didn't have to say anything. But Gat wasn't paying him any mind, his attention was now focused on the sound of footsteps descending the short staircase at the corner of the room. Draydon had told them that their mother, Tabitha, would be down to see them in a few minutes. The sound coming from the stairs had to be them, and Gat once again felt apprehensive. Sure, his father had accepted him, but would his mother? He didn't have to time to ponder the question before Draydon walked down the stairs and onto the stained white carpet, holding a woman by the hand. Tabitha, Gat noticed sadly, looked frail, probably due to the cancer that was eating away at her body. Her long black hair was still intact, Raider had said that she refused to do chemotherapy seeing as, according to doctors, it wouldn't prolonge her inevitable death for long.

Tabitha slowly took in Raider standing shoulder to shoulder with Gat. Astonishment was clearly visible on her face, and Tabitha shot forward as fast as she possibly could and wrapped her alarmingly thin arms around Gat. She knew who he was without being informed, because a mother could never forget her child. Gat tensed noticeably at her embrace, but he fought to contain his natural instincts and was shocked, if not utterly flabbergasted, to find himself relaxing. Tabitha stepped back from him about an inch so that she could get a better look at the face of her long lost but never forgotten son.

"My lord," she began, her voice cracking,

"you've gotten so tall and strong, and the the tattoos are, well their beautiful." Gat laughed, genuinely stunned by his mother's comment.

"Beautiful, really? I always get negative comments from older women who see the neck tattoos, they notice them and immediately think 'that man right there is some sort of delinquent.', so it's nice to hear that there is someone out there who won't judge them." Tabitha grinned and playfully walked over to Raider and proceeded to pull up the left sleeve of the black sued jacket that he was wearing and then the cuff of his dress shirt to reveal the tanned flesh of his muscular arm. Tabitha indicated the tribal 11 tatoo that curled from his wrist to the top of his shoulder. She grinned at her youngest son before addressing Gat again.

"If you haven't noticed, Raider here is covered in so many fucking tattoos that his back is more ink than flesh. So is your daddy's, and to be honest, so is mine." Gat let out a full out grin, showing his dazzling white teeth, something rare for him.

"So this is where my love of tattoos comes from? It's in my fucking genes?" Tabitha returned the smile.

"Not in your genes baby, it's just something that all of our family seems to be into. Maybe it's the times, or our family is just crazy."

Once Tabitha said that, her face changed. She looked contemplative now, and Gat wondered why. Tabitha grabbed him by the hand and urged Gat further into the living room, gesturing for him to take a seat on the faded blue couch. She sat down beside him and Raider and Draydon sat on the matching loveseat that was seperated from the couch by a battered coffee table. Nobody spoke for several seconds until Draydon couldn't stand the silence anymore.

"Okay, Johnny. We know that you didn't come here to talk about tats. We know that you want an explanation for why we gave you up, and I can sum that up in about four words; We were fucking idiots. I was twenty, your mother was eighteen. It was the same bullshit that you hear about all the time, a girl getting pregnant too young. Most girls get an abortion because they're scared and they don't know what to do. Your mother and I chose adoption because we didn't want to take away someone's life before it even had a chance to start. We wanted you to have the life that we wouldn't be able to provide you with. My parents died when I was seventeen, and your mom's told her that she was a slut and that they couldn't be associated with her. I was working as a janitor at Stilwater U. Your mother had just graduated High School and didn't have a job, we weren't going to put you in a life of poverty. Never think that it was an easy decision for us, because not a day has went by that we haven't missed you."

Gat cleared his throat, it felt like he had a wad of cotton in it, he really, really didn't want to talk about feelings so he opted for a topic of conversation that he hoped, wouldn't be as awkward.

"Raider, the fuck did you mean earlier when you said that 'you never told anyone your name to fucking protect me'? Because I don't get that and it's bugging the shit out of me." Raider was jostled out of his thoughts and forced into a conversation that he had never thought he'd have with Gat.

"Look, when you were adopted, Mom and Dad promised themselves that they'd never get involved with your life. They'd made the decision to give you up, so why should they get to be a part of you growing up? That was the motto that they lived by. " Raider paused and looked at their parents, Tabitha was looking at the ground as tears fell from her brown eyes, and Draydon had his bright blue eyes closed, clearly fighting tears himself. Raider took a shallow breath and continued.

"The Gats were begged not to tell you the names of your real family members . They told Mom and Dad that they couldn't lie to you about it. When I was born, our parents still had contact with The Gats, and Mom told your adoptive mother my name. Mom realized that if you knew my name and we met , you would've recognized that I had the same name as your brother and a link to your real family would have been formed. I didn't tell Julius or Troy when they rescued me because I was a fifteen year old kid, I'd just seen more than one person die, and almost been killed myself. I decided that it would be smart not to speak. Then when they left , I came back here and told mom what had happened and the preposition that I'd been given. She told me that when I met you, I should give you a fucking alias and not my real name ." Gat laughed, clearly finding something that Raider had said humorous.

"So you acted like a scared bitch and didn't say shit to anyone? You never gave me an alias to call you, so when Jules called you playa, that was the only name that anyone had for you. And by the way, my adoptive family never told me shit about you or Mom and Dad. The fuckers said that I didn't need to know. They didn't explain to me that I was adopted until I was eight and I realized that I was Asian and they weren't. By then, I'd already put most of the fucking pieces together." Raider sighed deeply, hoping that his words would go over well with Gat.

"Johnny, you asked me why I waited this long to tell you? It's because for four years I was in the Saints before Julius tried to blow me straight to hell. I was in a coma for five goddamned years. I've been awake for a year now, I realized when I woke up that I could've died and you would have never known that I'm your brother. I didn't plan to change my lifestyle so I knew that I could easily be killed at any time and I didn't want to die without you knowing that truth. But that didn't change the fact that we were both stressed out, we were trying to resurrect a dead gang, it just wasn't a good time to tell you. Then three weeks ago, Dad called me and said that Mom was dying of cancer. I knew that I couldn't let her pass away without seeing you again, because even though she wouldn't say so, I knew that her dying wish would be to see you again. I'm so fucking sorry that I waited this long to tell you."

Gat looked are the woman sitting beside him, he took a deep, calming breath and shocked everyone, including himself, by hugging her. Tabitha cried into her son's shirt. She cried for the years that she'd lost with him, and she cried for the limited time that they would be able to spend together now.

Three hours later...

Raider and Gat had said goodbye to their parents and were just about to leave when Raider's phone rang. He pulled the silver touch screened device out of his pocket and glanced at the caller id. He was bewildered to find that it was Shaundi, he warily answered the call .

"What's up?"

"Boss? Where the fuck are you?"

"You know where the fuck I am, I'm with my parents, just about to head home."

"Well get here as soon as you can. I have something that I need to tell you, and it's pretty damn urgent."

Raider felt annoyed now, Shaundi was well aware that he hated being rushed. Some of the annoyance that he felt slipped into his tone when he replied.

"Well if it's so motherfucking urgent, tell me now!" He heard Shaundi sigh on the other end.

"Boss -. I- I'm pregnant. And I think, actually I know that it's yours. You used a fucking condom but I guess it broke. I-." But Raider wasn't listening anymore. He collapsed onto the green grass outside of his parent's house. He heard startled yells from his family and the unmistakable crunch of his expensive phone breaking but he didn't respond to either because it felt like his entire world was coming apart at the seams.


	6. Chapter 6 Pre- Pre Marriage Counseling

A/N This story takes place during weird time periods throughout the game, some things have happened and others will happen as they become relevant to the story progression. Sorry for the unpredictable time frame (this is something that I'm trying to figure out as it comes to me )

Raider awoke in the disorganized room of his childhood, the red plaid blankets and sheets were the same as they had been before he'd left home, and Raider felt the need to laugh when he noticed the large bullet hole just above his headboard, an aftereffect of him trying to shoot a gun when he was ten without being taught how. Raider suddenly became aware of a figure sitting beside his bed in the old rocking chair that his mother had never had the heart to give away. Raider's eyes were still blurry from sleep but upon closer inspection, the entity manifested into Gat, who appeared to be unconscious, but Raider quickly realized that appearances aren't always accurate. Gat promptly sat up straight, and looked Raider directly in the eyes.

"The fuck happened outside, Raider? You went down, we couldn't get you back up. You had the freakiest look on your face and you were fucking hyperventilating, me and Dad had to drag your ass up here." Raider just shook his head. Gat waited another minute to see if Raider intended to say anything to him, when it became apparent to Gat that 'a cat had his brother's tounge', he continued the conversation himself .

"Your phone was damaged, but not completely broken. I knew that before you went down, you were talking to someone on it so I checked the call log. What the hell did Shaundi want?" Raider felt like he was losing control of his emotions, he couldn't deal with being a dad, and he sure as hell couldn't deal with Gat prying into his business.

"You know what, Johnny? I don't think it matters why Shaundi called, because it doesn't fucking concern you." Gat's face looked murderous now.

"It does concern me when you fucked a girl in our gang and knocked her up!" Raider jumped out of his bed, knocking over the floor lamp beside him in the process. Gat was out of the rocking chair in an instant. Raider had a look in his eyes that could have turned Medusa herself into stone.

"How the fuck do you know what she told me, Johnny ? Did she fucking call you? By the way, it's probably not even my baby, Shaundi fucks every guy that she sees!" Gat's expression changed when Raider began advancing on him, he no long looked angry, but eerily calm.

"Woah, Raider. I really don't think that you want me to beat the shit out of you at Mom and Dad's house." But Raider didn't care if he was going to lose; Gat had gone too far. Raider swung a punch aimed at Gat's temple, Gat barely avoided an instant knockout by diving onto the faded blue carpet . Raider was just about to issue a counterattack when he heard yelling. Draydon had overheard his sons fighting from his bedroom, which was just across the hall from Raider's, he had rushed into the room to try and stop his sons from killing each other.

"What the hell has gotten into you Raider? And Johnny, the kid basically had a fucking panic attack earlier, and you still think that it's a good idea to get into a fight with him?" Gat got off of the floor then, and took a furious step away from Raider. He walked to the half opened door and was just about to walk through it before he had to have the last word.

"Well, Dad, maybe you can talk some sense into the fucker standing beside you. And Raider, just know that it isn't right to just say 'piss off' to a girl who I'm pretty fucking sure isn't dumb enough to lie and say she's pregnant with your baby." With that, Gat flipped his younger brother off and walked out. Draydon urged Raider to sit back down on the bed, when Raider was situated, Draydon stood behind the rocking chair and held onto it's chipped green back. He was shocked to see the utter hatred in his youngest son's cold blue eyes.

"Raider, is what Johnny said true? Are you going to be a fucking father?" Draydon was relieved when the hate melted out of Raider's eyes and was replaced by something more fitting of the situation; fear.

"Dad, I don't know. The girl has sex with a new guy almost every week. Well up until the point that we had sex, after that, she stopped messing around so much." Draydon's eyes were unreadable as he thought through his next question carefully.

"So who is she, son? Is she a stripper or prostitute, how the fuck did you meet her and how the hell did you end up sleeping with her?" Raider grinned and laughed inappropriately at the memory.

"Ever heard of EverClear?"

"Yeah." Raider grinned even wider at Draydon's confused expression before he explained why the liquor had been brought up.

"Johnny brought a bottle of EverClear over to the HQ. He'd been keeping it from his girlfriend, Aisha. Aisha died about three months ago, and Johnny hasn't been up for much partying until lately. I guess that he finally decided that she wouldn't want him to mourn her forever. Anyway, I got wasted, the girl I was with got wasted, and long story short, we fucked." Draydon felt so many emotions, sadness for his oldest son, worry for his youngest son, and sickingly enough, a bit of pride for him too.

"You're telling me that you drank EverClear without puking all over the place?" Raider's grin faltered slightly as he realized that he was about to get shit from his dad.

"I never said that I didn't puke. I drank EverClear before we went into the bedroom , then I woke the up the next morning with a massive hangover. I'm pretty sure that by time I got over it, there wasn't a drop of that shit left in me ." Draydon just chuckled slightly, before he remembered what else Raider had said.

"Damn, you said that Johnny's girl died? How the fuck did that go down?" Raider sighed deeply at the image he had in his head, the blood spattering the walls, the flowers being cut down, Aisha's severed head rolling into the room behind the rest of her body. Raider visibly cringed and that was enough for Draydon, who was smart enough to know that if whatever had happened was bad enough to give his son the creeps, he really didn't want to know. Draydon decided to change the conversation back to the matter at hand.

"So you never told me who the girl is. Is that because you don't want me to know, or you don't fucking remember?" For some reason the last part of Draydon's question hurt Raider more than he'd ever let on. Of course he remembered Shaundi, did his father really have so little faith in him?

"I remember and I don't care if you know, it doesn't really matter. She's a girl in my gang. One of my main lieutenants, actually." Draydon thought about that for a minute.

"I bet that there's one thing that you don't know about me that might shock you." Raider considered that for a minute, what could he possibly not know about his dad? Draydon noticed his son's disbelieving expression and a wicked grin passed over his face.

"Well son, I was in a gang. From the time that I was sixteen up until five months before Johnny was born, I was a lieutenant in the gang The Stilwater Strikers. I started dating your mom while I was in the gang. Not long after your Mom got pregnant with Johnny, The Strikers were almost completely wiped out by a rival gang. I was one of about ten survivors of the gang war. After I lived through watching almost all of my friends die around me, that's when I decided to turn my life around, when I decided to go straight, to get out of the life . I got the position at Stilwater U because they'd just fired their last janitor due to the fact that he was hitting on some of the girls going to school, asking them for favors. I tried to make enough money to support your mother and make enough to raise Johnny, but I could barely afford to feed two people, let alone buy all of the shit we'd need to take care of a baby. Giving him up was our only real option. That's why whatever the fuck is going on between you and your lieutenant, you need to figure it out and fix It ." Raider's jaw dropped so far it probably could've hit the floor.

"You were in a gang? Why the hell have you not told me? You made me feel guilty because you just accepted me being a gang leader, no questions asked. I've always felt like I owed you an explanation, now you tell me that you accepted it because you did the same goddamned thing?" Draydon looked Raider in the eyes then, and the two shared a meaningful look, Raider's gaze was filled with shock and distrust, and Draydon's gaze was almost void of emotions. Then out of nowhere, the most important question popped into Draydon's head. He looked at his son who was obviously still reeling from his earlier revelation.

"Raider, do you love her?" Raider's head popped up so fast that he slammed it against the oak wood headboard of his bed.

"Oh shit, that hurt", Raider began, rubbing the back of his head with an extremely pissed off look on his face, "I don't know why the fuck that you want to know if I love her. I don't see how the hell that it's relevant." Draydon could barely contain the the anger he was feeling towards Raider, how the fuck could he be so blind?

"Damnit son, of course it's fucking relevant! If you don't love her, then why the shit would you marry her?" Raider's face looked like he was literally, a deer caught in headlights who was just waiting for the car to crush the life out of him.

"Marry her? Sure I guess that I have feelings for her but fuck, marriage? I don't know if I can fit that in my lifestyle. I don't." Raider stopped speaking suddenly and picked up the digital alarm clock sitting on the small nightstand beside his bed. He stood up and threw the clock as hard as he could towards the wall behind Draydon's head, who reflexively ducked and narrowly missed getting a concussion.

Draydon's eyes were wide with shock when he sat back up, he glanced in his son's direction but quickly looked away when he saw the raw emotions in Raider's eyes; anger, confusion, and most prominently, fear. He hoped that if he could calm Raider down enough, that he'd open up.

"Raider, I know that this is scary, but you've got to decide what kind of person that you want to be. You said something earlier that really caught my attention, you told me that this girl that you were with used to fool around until she got in the bed with you. Now why do you think that all of the sudden she stopped messing around?" Raider looked like he had no clue what Draydon was talking about, which was exactly what was expected of him.

"Fuck Raider, I didn't realize that dropping out of school screwed your mind over this much. The girl is in love with you or at least has feelings for you, now you need to decide how you feel about her." And with that, he walked out of the room, leaving Raider alone with with nothing but his thoughts.

Thirty minutes later...

Gat walked into Raider's room only to find him fast asleep, his black hair disheveled, blankets all over the floor, and a Vice 9 pistol clutched in his hand. Gat smiled a little bit as he went to take the gun out of his brother's grasp , as soon as his hand touched the firearm, it was violently ripped out of his hand and the cold barrel of the gun was pressed into the side if his head. Gat tensed and looked at Raider, who was clearly still half asleep. Awareness slowly crept into Raider as he tried to see Gat's eyes through the dark lensed sunglasses that Gat had on. Once Raider was fully awake, he lowered the gun and sat up. Gat stepped away from him, hands clenched at his sides. He didn't react in any way except to say,

"Raider, I'm going to let what you just did slide, because I don't want to fight with you again. Mom's asleep and I'd really rather not piss off Dad anymore by waking her up. He told me about the conversation that he had with you and he's right! You get the girl pregnant, you deal with it. I know that you having feelings for her because of how you reacted when Veteran Child took her. That wasn't just the desire to save a 'friend' when you flashbanged him repeatedly then shot him in the head. You love Shaundi, now the only thing left is for you to realize that." Raider thought back to the fight with DJVC, he had killed the guy brutally but -

"Fuck it, you're right! I am in love with her, I've just never thought that I have a shot with her, she's with a new guy constantly, so where would I have fit in? That's the problem, I wouldn't fit in." Gat just stood there, an evil look on his face. Raider felt himself losing patience rapidly so he took a deep breath and released it through his nose.

"Johnny, why are you just standing there with that goofy assed smile on your face?" Johnny smiled wider, but it was clear to him that Raider wasn't messing around anymore.

"You were right, Shaundi called me right after you passed out or whatever the hell that was, she told me all of the details. The timeframe is right for it to be your baby. She told me that if she isn't already in love with you, then she's definitely falling for you. So if she did want to be with you, would you marry her?"

"Yes." Raised replied simply, in a voice barely above a whisper. Gat didn't seem to be listening anymore, and it was clear to Raider that his thoughts were somewhere else.

"Johnny?" Gat looked at Raider with pain written all over his face, he coughed a little bit before he tried to speak.

"Raider, you need to be with Shaundi while you can. I mean, me and Aisha, well we were like fire and gasoline. But though I didn't say it enough, I loved her. She kept me balanced, made me a better person. I miss her all the fucking time but I don't let myself truly mourn her, because if I always did that, she would have beat my ass by now If she'd realized what I was doing to myself." Raider didn't understand why Gat was dropping all of this shit on him now, so his response came out in a wary tone.

"Why the fuck are you dropping the bomb on me now?" Gat looked at Raider then, straight in the eyes. He broke eye contact before saying,

"Eesh was three months pregnant when she died."

A/N Sorry for the ending of the chapter ! It came to me and I couldn't think through how terrible it is, but there is a lot that I can do with it.


	7. Chapter 7: Jealousy, Shock, and Blood

A/N Just one weird question, did anyone notice the colors of some of that objects in Raider's room at his parents house in the previous chapter?

Red plaid blankets

Faded blue carpet

Green rocking chair

I was trying to reference the three new gang colors that arise in SR TT. I know that it technically doesn't count as foreshadowing, but I thought that it was a neat touch.

Raider laid on his left side, staring at the wall opposite his bed. He noticed the dents in the walls, the results of one too many tantrums during his childhood and earliest teen years. Raider knew that Gat was somewhere in the room, waiting for him to speak. But Raider didn't want to talk, it was 5 o'clock in the morning and he Gat were due back at the Headquarters by seven. But Raider could barely think about what hell must be awaiting him back home, his mind was on what Gat had revealed to him a few minutes before; Aisha had been pregnant when she'd died. Raider clearly remembered the day that the accident had happened, almost as if everytime the memory played through his head, he was seeing a fresh splatter of blood on the wall.

Raider couldn't take it anymore, he rolled over to face Gat who looked at him with an expression that was scarily void of emotion.

"Johnny, how the fuck did I not find out? Jane Valderama would have killed to do a news cover on something like that." Gat rolled his shoulders and glanced away. Raider was just about to give up on the conversation when he heard Gat say,

"Yeah, I know. I paid off a shitload of people and made more threats than I can count to make sure that no one mentioned it. It was bad enough that the Ronin got my girl, I sure as hell wasn't giving them the satisfaction of knowing that they butchered two people for the price of one." Raider nodded and was about to drop the subject until he remembered something that had been bothering him.

"Johnny, why did you bring the EverClear to the Headquarters and insist that we all get wasted?" Johnny's entire body ceased up and his teeth clenched together, but he forced himself to speak.

"It was Eesh's birthday that day, she would've turned twenty nine. It was also the day that I'd been planning on proposing to her. You know, a birthday present to her, I was going to be romantic, for once. Since I didn't get to, I might as well get to celebrate the fact that a sword went through me and I'm still fucking alive." Gat looked away, clearly fighting with the emotions that he didn't want to have. Raider sighed, he didn't know what to say to Gat other than,

"Boy or girl?"

"Girl." Gat whispered, looking down at the floor.

A few hours later...

Draydon and Tabitha Brent hugged their sons goodbye and watched as they drove away in a white Bezier . Tabitha started to cry as her faithful husband held her. They both knew that Pancreatic Cancer was usually terminal, and that with their son's schedules, Tabitha might die without seeing them again. Raider had repeatedly asked what type of cancer that she had, and she'd repeatedly told him that it didn't matter, but she found herself regretting telling him that . She had lied through her teeth and said that she felt better everyday, and seeing Gat had made her feel stronger. In truth, she'd given him too much false hope because in reality, she could feel her body getting weaker, could feel the increase in effort that it took just to get out of the bed in the morning. She knew that she didn't have long left. Tabitha just hoped that she would get to see her grandchild before she passed.

Raider and Gat, driving home to Saints Headquarters.

Raider felt dread steadily building in his stomach as he maneuvered the white Bezier that he was driving recklessly towards the Saints main Headquarters. He was really starting to regret eating that reheated lasagne, and he briefly wondered if it was the reason behind his gastrointestinal discomfort. He looked into the passenger seat and was mildly relieved to see that Gat had finally fallen asleep, after staying awake for nearly two days straight. The back of his head was against the purple upholstered headrest, and his right hand was loosely

clutching the armrest. He looked tense, even in sleep, and Raider wondered not for the first time, what types of dreams haunted him. Did he see Aisha getting murdered over and over, the blood spattering the wall behind the chair, the fresh flowers being chopped down, Aisha's severed head rolling into the bedroom behind the rest of her body - Gat stirred from his restless sleep, as if he'd heard Raider's thoughts. Raider hoped to whatever divine being watching over him that Gat didn't have the freakish ability to read his mind. Gat sighed and removed his ever present sunglasses just long enough to rub the sleep out of his eyes. He quickly replaced his shades and grinned at Raider. It was clear to Raider that thankfully, Gat wasn't a mind reader.

"Fuck, I must have passed out. What, are you not going to be a smartass and call me sleeping beauty?" Raider was paying more attention to the road now as he switched from the left lane of the road to the right lane, so the question's humor was almost lost to him.

"Is it some weird fetish of yours to have someone dress you up as a princess and-."

"Shut the fuck up, bastard!" Gat spat out, efficiently cutting of Raider, who ignored being rudely cut off only because they had just arrived at the Saints Headquarters.

Bums lined the outer walls of the Headquarters, some were drinking 40 ozs and others were smoking blunts . Raider rolled his eyes as he watched two male bums fight over the last sip of booze in a bottle . He was going to have to get Pierce on the task of either exterminating or relocating the homeless people. As soon as the thought passed, Pierce and Carlos walked through the Headquarters doors. Carlos glanced at Raider through deep brown eyes, then quickly looked away. Raider wondered what thoughts were going through his mind. He wasn't left wondering for long, because Carlos walked over to his door and yanked it open. Raider jumped stepped out of the sports car and slowly turned to fact Carlos. He could tell by the set of Carlos's shoulders and the way that his jaw way tightly clenched that the kid wanted to fight. Why, Raider didn't know, and he also realized that he didn't give a fuck. Life was grating on his last nerve, and he knew that if someone pushed him just a little further, he was going to snap, and all hell would most certainly break lose.

Raider stared at Carlos and waited for him to make a move. The fight left Carlos's eyes and he just stood there, looking at his leader. He waited to see if Raider had anything to say before speaking himself.

"Boss-."

"I'm done with the 'Boss' bullshit. My name's Raider, so you can call me that." Carlos simply nodded, but the conversation wasn't over.

"Alright, Raider. What the hell are you planning to do about Shaundi?" The bluntness of Carlos's demanding question wasn't lost on Raider. He fucking hated it when people tried to pry into his business.

"Fuck off, Carlos." Carlos shook his head no and Raider sneered.

"Kid, I like you. But me thinking that you're alright doesn't mean that you're hot shit. You can't just come at the leader of this gang and walk away. There are consequences for that."

Carlos just stood there so

Raider turned around again and started walking towards the Headquarters again, he thought that the argument was over until he felt something that felt strangely like a fist slam into the back of his head. Raider spun around faster than even Gat could have reacted. Pierce saw what was about to happen but Gat grabbed him and stopped him from interfering.

"Pierce, don't get involved, Raider won't kill him." Pierce looked like he thought that Gat was full of shit but he didn't try to interfere again, he just watched in fear as the fight became more heated.

Raider only hesitated a second before punching Carlos straight in the face, who stumbled back, clearly shocked. Carlos realized that Raider had both the height and strength to fight, so he feigned a left punch, distracting Raider just long enough to kick him where the sun simply refuses to shine. Raider felt agony tear through him, but what Carlos didn't realize is that Raider really and truly, could act like a lunatic. Raider, ignoring the pain in his groin, grabbed Carlos in a headlock and slammed him against the hood of the Bezier, severely denting the expensive car. Carlos felt himself losing consciousness because of lack of oxygen so he did the only thing that he could do; he pulled out a knife and stabbed Raider in the kidneys, or so he thought. It became apparent to Carlos when Raider didn't show much reaction to the knife other than to tear it out of his side that one, he'd missed his mark, and two, Carlos was now in deep shit. That thought was seconded when Carlos felt his head being slammed into the brick wall of the Headquarters and then barely registered it as his awareness blinked out like a light. Raider grabbed his side as soon as he was sure that Carlos was in fact unconscious and definitely not dead. The jagged cut hurt, the knife had probably went deep enough to damage something. The blade itself had been wicked, jagged spikes with smaller teeth in-between. But Raider couldn't stand being near the people in his gang anymore. Stress was getting to him and his goal was to bring the Saints back from the grave, not put sinners in theirs. He slowly stumbled over to the drivers side of his bezier, using the sides of the car for support. Pierce tried helping him but he just raised his hand up in the universal sign for stay away.

After a minute passed, Raider was situated in the car. He felt his leg getting wet and realized that the wound was now bleeding profusely and leaking everywhere. He took off his black jacket and attempted to stanch the steady flow of blood that had began to stain the purple satin upholstery. Gat walked over to Raider's side of the car and looked in at him.

"You okay? Carlos was more pissed off then I've ever seen him. I thought that it was going to be a fist fight, I never thought that Carlos would actually stab you." Raider nodded and flinched as he put more pressure on the still bleeding wound. Gat shook his head.

"No, you're not okay, you obviously need to go to the hospital and get that stitched up." Raider's head shot up and he gave Gat a look filled with so much fire that Gat thought that he might be okay.

"Fuck no, Johnny. They might be forced to provide me medical care but I'd be surprised if they didn't call the goddamned cops on me right after. It's too fucking risky, they'd want to do an investigation and I ain't getting Carlos sent away for this shit, I don't want to give Troy the satisfaction." Gat sadly, could see the reason behind Raider's argument. The Saints were being fucked with by three rival gangs already, they really didn't need anymore attention from the Stilwater Police Department.

"Well where are you going so I can find your body if you bleed out and die?" Raider felt too weak to laugh at Gat's joke so he bluntly said,

"I'm going to head over to Technically Legal, to wait this bleeding out." Raider started up the car and Gat watched as he drove away.

Not twenty minutes after Raider left, Shaundi woke up and walked down the stairs from his bedroom where she'd been crashing only to find out that he hadn't been by to see her. She found Gat lying on the dirty purple couch in the middle of the first level of the Headquarters, asleep. She felt like she was going to regret it but she she nudged his shoulder gently with her hand to wake him up. Gat woke up unforeseenly without incident and grinned when he saw Shaundi standing above him.

"Sup?"

"Where's The Boss?" Gat sat bolt upright as he remembered what had taken place outside. The fight between Raider and Carlos, Raider driving away, Pierce hauling Carlos into his Bulldog and driving him over to Red Light Loft where basic medical supplies were stockpiled.

"He got stabbed in a fight with Carlos, he drove himself over to the Technically Legal closest to here. He told me that he needed to be alone so he could unwind, he wouldn't let anyone go with him, he said that he just needed to wait the bleeding out." Shaundi's jaw dropped when she realized that shit had hit the fan.

"Carlos was pissed off because - because, he says that he's been in love with me since the day that we first met. He said that he didn't think that The Boss deserved me. He was going to talk to The Boss but he wasn't supposed to stab him!" Gat nodded and said,

"Shit, I didn't know that Carlos felt that way. Anyway, you and Raider need to talk and he needs help before he bleeds out . Go over to Technically Legal and talk to him, but don't call him Boss. He came clean with me about everything and told me that his name is Raider, so call him that." Shaundi nodded and ran up to the elevator. She got to the surface level and had to push a homeless woman out of her way to get to the garage. She heard the woman yell "Bitch!" behind before she got into her purple Superiore, but she didn't stop because she had to get to 'Raider' before it was too late.

Technically Legal strip club

Raider Brent sat in the Private Lounge of the Technically Legal strip club, drinking a shot of vodka. The side that he'd been stabbed in, his left side, was now completely numb. Several people including bouncers and strippers alike had asked him if he was okay, to which he had repeatedly replied that he was fine. No one questioned him further because in a town such as Stilwater, you saw people bleeding everywhere almost daily. But the scariest part of it was that Raider knew that he definitely wasn't alright. His jacket was almost soaked through with blood and he felt like he was going to throw up, though he hadn't eaten anything in hours.

Raider thought that he was seeing an angel standing beside him and uttering his name.

"Raider, baby? Boss?"

Raider certainly felt shock and confusion when the angel came into focus and manifested into Shaundi, her beautiful face, her green eyes and dreaded brown hair. Raider tried to get a closer look at her but he soon realized that the lounge was spinning in circles and he was falling, falling into an impenetrable and all consuming darkness.

A/N Please rate and review if you enjoyed reading this, reviews truly skyrocket my confidence and encourage me to write.


	8. Chapter 8: Where will the Surprises End

A/N Well, this is my first chapter that was actually typed on a computer, though it was published on my smartphone. The previous seven were all published and written on my LG Optimus Fuel (a tiny, tiny phone), and though the reviews that I have received thus far have generally, been very positive, and of course, are IMMENSELY APPRECIATED, I'm not happy with the way that I have been writing. It has been very hard writing the chapters on my phone and it has made proofreading a terrible experience, and I just feel like my writing has been restricted. So from this chapter on, my writing style will be different (and I hope better), but the story should still be of the same concept. Now about this chapter specifically, this is the first Carlos chapter, so I hope that you enjoy it! Well, I forgot to mention, I'm going to stop doing short chapters in favor of longer, more action packed ones, so this chapter won't completely follow Carlos.

Carlos Mendoza felt rage boiling inside of him, like a blight on his sanity. He knew that he had made a possibly fatal mistake in stabbing Raider, but his leader had been acting like a total asshole. Carlos had dealt racist people his entire life, he'd never attempted to take up for himself, had always let people step all over him. He'd been feeling exceptionally stressed as out as of late, being the one that the boss trusted to gather intel on the notorious and dangerous gang The Brotherhood, it wasn't like going on vacation. Carlos didn't trust Maero, the leader of The Brotherhood, he seemed like the type who could give you the twenty eighty split deal that he had offered Raider, and then shoot you in the back, all the while thinking of the design for the next tattoo that he wanted to decorate his already exorbitantly inked body with.

The fight between Carlos Raider had escalated quickly, so expeditiously that neither man had been able to fathom what was to come. When Carlos had stabbed Raider, it had been a split second's decision, he hadn't even registered that he had the knife in his pocket, let alone in his hand. The only thing that Carlos had registered was that Raider's death grip on his neck was rapidly killing him, cutting off someone's oxygen supply was a sure fire way to murder them, or an even better way to give the person being strangled a reason to want to stab you. Which was exactly what had happened. In the end, Carlos had ended up losing the fight as it's climax had been Carlos getting his head rammed into the exterior brick wall of the Saints's hideout. Carlos had woken up a few hours later in the first Safehouse that the saints had purchased, Red Light Loft, with an intense pounding in his head.

Pierce was there, he was playing the Zombie Uprising game on the outdated console and terribly graphical television. Carlos got off of the stained and extremely repugnant smelling mattress that he'd been lying on, and streched. His entire body ached from the physical exertion that fighting someone who was around five inches taller and more than one hundred pounds heavier required from him. Sighing, he stepped around the weapons crate situated in front of the long row of blue counters lining the wall opposite of him. Carlos still felt infuriated from the fight, so the fact that Pierce was being so inconsiderate with the volume that the game audio was coming out didn't improve the young saints lieutenant's mood in the least.

"Pierce, cut the goddamned game off!" Carlos yelled sharply, efficiently scaring the living daylights out of Pierce.

"Fuck Carlos, I thought that you were going to be out for a while, I was ju-"

"Save it. I know what you were thinking, you were thinking that the boss really beat the shit out of me and there's no way that I'm ever going to get back up. Well guess what, asshole. I'm fucking up." Pierce just turned back towards the game console, and began saving the game, which on the outdated gaming system, could have damn well taken ten years. Carlos, beginning to feel even more pissed off, walked stealthily over to the side of the game console closest to the faded blue door of the Red Light Loft safehouse and pushed the large red power button. Pierce gave him a look like he was trying to be death personified.

"The fuck is this shit! I almost got to the last motherfucking level and now you go and fucking cut off the fucking game? You- you, fucker!" Pierce was childishly seething now, he didn't know what Carlos's problem was, but Pierce knew that he needed to figure it out before he was given more urgent things to worry about, like having his balls forced out through his throat. Carlos was used to Pierce's temper tantrums by now, he'd seen the boss knock him of off his pedestal too many times.

"Pierce, shut the hell up, my head fucking hurts, and you being a whiny assed bitch aint' helping me feel better so shu-" Carlos didn't get to finish the sentence because right at that moment, Gat walked in. He looked absolutely furious and instantly made a move towards Carlos, who moved his hand to his front left pocket where he'd stashed the vice 9 pistol that he had grabbed off of the top of the blue weapons safe. Gat just stared at Carlos with a relatively neautral expression on his handsome face. But Carlos noticed the subtle clenching and unclenching of his jaw and knew that behind the calm facade, Gat was positively seething.

"I got a call from Shaundi last night. It turns out that Raider went into shock from blood loss and had to be taken to the hospital. She said that he nearly died, so you better have a damn good explanation for stabbing him or I swear to God that I will beat the living shit out of you and bury you in the goddamned ground while you're still alive and screaming. Like I did to that fucker Shogo, so don't you fucking say that I don't have the balls." In all honesty, Carlos was smart enough to know that not believing that Gat would always do what he said he would do was a death sentence. He'd heard Jane Valderama's news report on Shogo's death and knew that he didn't want to be a victim of the same gruesome fate.

"Johnny, you saw the entire fight, you know how he acted like he didn't care about Shaundi. It was the last straw. I can't fucking be the one who has to gather intel on The Brotherhood. I feel like I'm in way over my head, I want to be a Saint, but not the type that's already dead."

"So your response to being forced to gather imformation from a gang that you don't like is stabbing your leader? The fuck kind of logic is that?" Carlos sighed deeply because deep down, he knew that pulling a knife on someone during a fist fight was bad enough, but actually stabbing someone with it was worse than bringing a knife to a gunfight. Raider had obviously been stressed out when he'd gotten home from introducing Gat to their parents, and Raider had already not been in a very good mood considering all of the pressure that the Ronin, Brotherhood, and Samdei were putting on the gang. And now because of Carlos, the Saints were without a leader.

"Fuck, Johnny, is Shaundi in the hospital alone with him?"

"Yeah, I think so, but she can't take care of him by herself. She's gonna need a crew. Plus, they're probably planning on calling the cops on him soon."

"We need to get Raider out of the hospital. " Said Carlos and Gat in unison. Pierce just smiled a cocky grin, for the day had just turned into a rescue mission.

Stilwater Memorial Hospital, Raider

Raider could hear the incessant beeping of machines all around him, he could smell cleaning products. He thought that he could hear the slight buzzing noise usually associated with a television that had a cheap sattelite. He opened his eyes quickly, only to immeadiately close them as dazzlingly bright lights from the solid white ceiling blinded him. He realized that he was in a hospital bed because of the noise that the sheets made as his position changed over them. His side hurt, but he had no idea why. Why had he been hospitalized? Raider opened his eyes again, blinking away the moisture that the lights forced out of them. He glanced around at his surroundings, took in the white linoleum floors and the white washed walls. There wasn't a drop of color in the damn place aside from the hideous brown and orange furniture that lined the wall directly in front of him. Looking for the source of the static noise, Raider found the noise source a good few feet away, it was a small flat screen, positioned on the wall at an angle where it would be clearly visible to the patient. Raider looked directly beside him and noticed that he was hooked up to an IV, and there was a discarded bag of Moriphine in the small grey trashcan on the right side of his bed. So whatever had happened was bad enough were the doctor's felt the need to give him a pain killer that strong.

Raider's memories of the night before quickly came rushing back to him. Coming home to the headquarters, fighting with Carlos- Damn, that was it! Raider remembered that he and his youngest lieutenant had gotten into an argument about how Raider was intending to handle Shaundi being pregnant with his baby. The argument has escalated quickly, and had been turned into a fight by Carlos throwing the first punch. Raider had been choking out Carlos until he'd stabbed him. Raider had incapacitated Carlos by ramming the side of the kid's head into the brick wall of the hideout. Then he'd driven himself to the Technically Legal that was closest to the hideout. His wound had began bleeding rapidly, and his head had felt foggy but that hadn't mattered to him. He'd gone into the Saint members private lounge in the back of the popular skin joint. The waitress had asked him if he wanted anything to drink, then she had noticed the blood soaking her costumer's jacket and had asked if he needed an escort to the hospital. Raider had declined, knowing that with his track record, going to any hospital with a stab wound would definitely give the doctors enough of a reason to take a statement from him while calling the cops at the exact same second. Sure Troy, the chief of police, seemed to be on Raider's side, but how much would the ex undercover Saints lieutenant be willing to risk his job to cover for his old friend? Raider knew that the vodka that he had drank had probably considerably thinned his blood, but he'd been in way too much pain to care. Then all of the sudden, the pain had completely ceased, and Raider had felt numb.

The last thing that Raider remembered was seeing Shaundi beside him and hearing her calling his name. He knew that it was probably a figment of his delusional imagination, because Shaundi didn't know his name, or at least he didn't think that she did, because he knew that he had never told her it. Yeah, Raider thought to himself, I was on a high from blood loss, there's no goddamned way that Shaundi had been in that strip club with me when I blacked out. It had to have been the waitress who had offered to take me to the hospital, making sure that I hadn't up and died on her shift. But how flawed Raider's philosophy on the entire situation was soon became apparent to him when he realized that he wasn't alone in his bed. Shaundi was curled in a ball beside him, her head just barely putting any form of pressure on his chest. He hadn't noticed when he'd first woken up because his mind hadn't been on her. But now that it was, finding her so close to him made him feel strange. Raider turned his head to the side carefully so that he could get a better look at Shaundi, it soon became apparent that she was asleep, her long brown dreads spilling from her head onto the part of the fluffy white pillow that she had claimed for herself. Her facial expression looked calm, as if sleeping in such close proximity to Raider had put her mind into a blissful state of serenity. She stirred slightly as Raider's position changed, and he tensed up in anticipation of her waking up. But instead of waking up, she unconsciously moved her head onto his bare chest more and released a low sigh.

Shaundi was at peace for now, at least. That was good for her, but Raider's mind was in turmoil. The stress of finding out that Shaundi was pregnant with his child was bad enough, and finally coming clean with Gat had to have been the hardest decision that he'd ever had to make. Not to mention that a simple fist fight with one of his lieutenants had escalated so quickly into something that had gotten him hospitalized. And to make matters worse, Shaundi's closeness to him was doing unpleasant things to a certain area of his body. Damn, this hurts, Raider thought to himself, biting his lip to keep himself from moaning in either pleasure or pure pain. Or, weirdly enough, both. Damn, Raider knew that he was at least a little bit massochistic, the things that he and Lin had done when Raider had lost his virginity to her, well those things are the kind of kinky shit that you wouldn't find inside the most hard core porn magazines. Lin had always brought out the best in him. Shaundi awoke then, interrupting Raider's inappropriate train of thought.

"Hey.", she said softly, her voice cracking slightly from disuse. She sat up on the left corner of the bed and waited for Raider to reply. It took him a minute to formulate a coherent response due to his mind still being somewhere else entirely.

"Hey Shaundi, how have you been?"

"The fuck do you mean by 'how have I been?', I'm knocked up because you're a motherfucking idiot who doesn't know how to replace a box of goddamned condoms!" To say that Shaundi's outburst just shocked Raider would be like saying that Quentin Terantino simply enjoyed producing movies with excessive amounts of blood and gore. In other words, it would be a major understatement.

"The fuck are you going off on me for, Shaundi? How often do you think that I actually take a girl to my bedroom to fuck her? I like the couch, it's plenty classy for the sluts that I pick up. But not for you. So I'm sorry that I forgot that the condoms I had in there were one's that I borrowed from Johnny when I ran out. He bought them I don't know when but I got them from him what, five or six months ago? He told me that the box was new so I thought that he had just bought them. Now I'm guessing that he bought them before he went to jail and just didn't realize that he was giving me an expired box. I just didn't think to check them." Shaundi fought to keep her emotions in check. She didn't want to have a fight with Raider and had promised herself that she would listen to his side of the story only because another guy that evidently had feelings for had stabbed him over her.

"I'm sorry, it's the mood swings, I can't fucking control my emotions. I'm sorry I feel like I'm being such a bitch." Shaundi began to cry, and Raider did the only thing that seemed right to him at the time. He gingerly sat up, just enough to reach Shaundi and bring her towards him. He held her against his chest as she cried, he stroked her long dreads gently until finally she calmed down some. Her breathing no longer sounded so labored and she started touching the tattoo of an intricate dragon that dominated the upper right side of his chest.

" I love you, Raider. I don't care what that means for me, but I love you. I've made up my mind and I want to be with you, if you want me." Raider felt the side effects of the Moriphine that he'd been given suddenly and violently. He turned over on his right side and reached out for the garbage can beside his bed, he barely managed lean over it before he threw up all of the vodka and whatever else that he'd mistakingly put into his stomach the night before. He gagged and vomited again, it felt like everything in intestines was angry with him and wanted to make him suffer as much as humanly possible. Shaundi, after watching the puke come out of his mouth, realized that he was genuinely sick and wasn't childishly making fun of her, like she had originally thought. Sighing, she put her hand on his intricately tatted up back, she rubbed it in soothing circles. Raider's entire body was shaking, and she wondered what the doctors had given him that was making him so ill. She pressed the blue call button on the universal remote strapped to the railing of his bed. A female nurse's voice came over the speakers.

"Yes, how may I help you?"

"Hi, I'm with the patient in room 313, and he's throwing up a lot and stuff, I really don't know what to do." Shaundi kept her voice calm and imformative, but on the inside she was freaking out. What if Raider died, + would she do then?

"Is he conscious?"

"Fuck, yeah he's conscious. But he's really sick."

"Is he vomiting up blood? If not, what color is it?" Shaundi didn't understand why the color of the puke was relevent, but she checked for the nurse anyway.

"It looks like it's dark green or something like that."

"Shit, I'll be there soon." Shaundi bit back a laugh, she had never heard of a nurse using cuss words before, the desire to laugh was quickly destroyed when Shaundi realized that the nure had probably had good reason for using the vulgar word; something was wrong with Raider.

Not five minutes later, the heavy metal door of room 313 opened and the sound of high hills clicking accross the white linoleum floor richocheted around the room. The nurse was tall and thin, with bright green eyes and long black hair. She was at least half Asian, and Shaundi wondered if under different circumstances, whether or not Raider would be attracted to her. She felt jelously rearing it's ugly head, so she got off of the bed and went to stand beside the door that led into the adjoining bathroom of Raider's hospital room. The nurse whose name tag Shaundi noticed said 'Dalila Cheng, RN', went over to the left side of Raider's bed and checked on her patient, who seemed to have stopped expelling the contents of his stomach.

"Do you feel like you're going to be sick again anytime soon? I need to look in the garbage can but if you're going to start vomitting again, I need to be ready for that." Raider carefully maneuvered himself upright onto the bed, then carefully to avoid aggravating the painful stab wound on his left side, relaxed onto the bed . His forehead was sweating and his hair felt sticky, he combed his fingers through the spiky black strands while waiting for his ragged breathing to regulate.

"Honestly, I feel like shit. I wasn't expecting to puke in the first place so I don't know if I'm going to be sick again. But with the way my stomach is ceasing up, I wouldn't hold it past me." The nurse simply nodded and took the now spoiled garbage can over to the sink by the door, the sink had a high powered light hanging above it that brought the color of the throw up that the garbage can containted into clear detail. The nurse's pretty face fell and she now looked worried. Something about the color was upsetting her, Shaundi realized. She just didn't know what.

"Mr. Brent, I need to look at your wound now. If my hunch is correct, you're in trouble." Raider moaned in pain as the nurse ran her hand over the raised scar on his side, where he now assumed that he had been stitched up. The nurse flinched as she felt heat coming off of the swollen wound. She had been correct, her patient had been vomitting up stomach bile because his wound had become infected while the doctors were stitching it up. The medicine that was needed to cure the infection was in her hand, but the nurse knew that there was no way that she would have time to administer the drug before everything went to hell.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I can't help you. While I was listening to the call from this room, there were some member of the Sons of Samdei sitting in the waiting room, they were waiting for treatment for bullet wounds. They heard the woman standing by the bathroom's voice and called in reinforcements. They're on the way to take both of you out." Raider instinctively tried sitting up but instantly the pain in his side was too intense and he cried out in pain while lying on the bed again. There was cold fury in his gaze, and just a little bit of fear. He didn't even have a gun, how the fuck was he going to survive a fight with the often times SMG wielding voodoo worshippers? Luckily, the Asian nurse came to his rescue. She walked over to the oak wood patient closet that was pushed against the side of the room fartherest from the door, and opened the double doors. Inside, there was only one thing stored, a large black garbage bag that had something that looked weirdly like the butt of a Carbine Rifle poking out of the top of it.

Raider grinned wickedly as he realized that he was staring at a bag of guns. Someone had stored them there, just in case of an emergency.

"How the fuck did all of these goddamned guns in there? And why do you care so much about him? " Shaundi blurted out, she had moved to stand beside Raider's bed again once the nurse had moved. The nurse in question turned around with a cool smirk on her face.

"Well, ma'am, I'm Raider's cousin, Dalila Cheng Brent." Raider's eyes widened in surprise, he had never called his cousin by her real name and hadn't laid eyes on her since he was fourteen . But she was still his cousin, how had he not recognized her?"

"Dilly?" Raider asked tentatively, expecting the nurse to punch him in the face and laugh at how foolish he was for believing that she was his cousin.

"Raido!" Dalila squealed, using the nickname that she had given her younger cousin when he'd been born and she hadn't been able to say 'Raider'. Raider smiled happily because he was seeing someone that he had missed greatly,but then he felt flashbacks that he didn't want to relive entering his mind. Up until Raider was fourteen and Dalila was seventeen, the two had been as close as sibilings. Then Dilly had been raped by a member of the Los Carnales gang and nearly killed. She'd become pregnant with her daughter, Clover, and had refused to give up the child. To protect their daughter from the scorn of having a baby conceived by rape, Odarian and Lana Brent, Raider's uncle and aunt, had taken Dalila to a city a few hours away from Stilwater, named Steelport. Raider had been the one to find his beautiful cousin after the brutal attack, when she hadn't met him at the local Freckle Bitches like they had made plans to do that day. Raider had found her lying in a heap of trash a few buildings down from the resturaunt and she had told him what had happened to her. Raider had held her as she cried, but hadn't been able to help her, for the Los Carnales gang member had crushed her spirit, and taken her innocence. The moment that Dalila had called Raider from the hospital and told him that she was pregnant was the moment that Raider's entire philosophy on life changed. She had told him that his aunt and uncle were coming to say goodbye before they relocated to Steelport, but she wouldn't be coming because it would be too hard to say goodbye. The moment that the phone call ended was the dawn of a change in Raider's character. He began acting out in school, and that led to him dropping out. Child Protective Services could never take him away because he was almost never home. He had started stealing from convenience stores for cash and had already built up quite a record when Julius saved him from the gang confrontation on that secluded street corner. Seeing the member of the Los Carnales had been his entire reason for joining the gang. He had wanted to make them suffer. After Dilly left, the only contact that he had with her was an envelope that he received a few months before joining the Saints, containing a picture. The picture had a few simple words on the back, written in blue ink.

Raido, this is your baby cousin, Clover. She's beautiful and I think that I'm going to be okay here. I love you, never forget that.

With love from your cousin, Dilly.

Seeing Dalila so many years later was like a severe case of deja vu. He had missed her greatly but that didn't mean that he didn't have questions.

"Dilly, how long have you been back in Stilwater? Why the fuck am I just now finding out about you being back? The fuck is going on with the bag of guns in your hand?" Dilly just smiled, showing all of her white teeth in her still familiar cat-like grin.

"Questions, little cousin. Too many fucking questions in too little time. I'll answer all of them once we get out of here, if we get out of here alive." And with that, Dilly passed Shaundi and Raider both a gun. Just before the door of the hospital room was thrown open.

Carlos Mendoza:

Carlos sat in a black bulldog with Pierce. Gat was sitting on the tailgate, a RPG launcher gripped tightly in his hands. The trio had just received a distress call from some of the lackey saints who had been assigned to guard the hospital while Raider was out. The distress call had revealed that the hospital was under attack because some injured Samdei had heard Shaundi's voice over the patient assistance speaker, when she'd called to get help for Raider. They had recognized her voice from the many times that they had heard her and DJ Veteran Child fighting. The Samdei had called the general who called in several reinforcements to take out Raider while he was still an easy target. There were enough Saints at the hospital who were willing to risk their lifes to save their leader, but they would eventually run out of ammo. They could only be of use for so long before they would get themselves killed. Thats where the three remaining Saints lieutenants would come in. They had raided the weapon caches at the main hideout and several nearby safehouses in order to win the gang shootout that was sure to ensue when the first bullets of a gang war were fired. The Bulldog was being followed by several purple Beizers, Bootleggers, and other bulldogs, each containing three to four lackey saints who were eager to prove themselves and help save their leader's life. Each vehicle in the saint's convoy was loaded down by heavy bags full of SMG's, Assault Rifles, Pistols, Shotguns, and explosives. The saints were getting Raider and Shaundi out alive.

It wasn't long before Carlos heard the first bullets being fired. Several bloodcurdling screams filled the silent area in a matter of seconds, by-stander, Saint, or Samdei, Carlos couldn't be sure but he knew that he had to be ready. Pierce was driving the bulldog, so he was restricted to using an SMG, so Carlos was going to have to help Gat shoot out their pursuers with the AR-50 XMAC that he given him prior to getting on the tailgate. Carlos was glad for the powerful gun now, as he saw the first green vehicles come rushing at Pierce's Bulldog. Gat took careful aim at a green and white churchhill that was directly behind the vehicle. He let loose a perfectly aimed rocket and laughed sadistically as the churchill was blown to pieces and the Samdei inside were killed and sent to hell. Gat turned around to face Carlos and gave him a thumbs up. Carlos smiled, he was enjoying the amazing fireworks display that Gat's carnage was creating. Then out of nowhere, another huge explosion sounded off in the distance, and based on the furious look on Gat's face, it hadnt't been good for their side of the fight.

Carlos afraid for the first time now, the two laned road that the gang vehicle procession was traveling on was completely overun with various purple and green cars. Stop signs and traffic lights were knocked down as the cars raced through the crowded and dirty streets of Stilwater. Pedestrians were mowed down and ran over repeatedly unless they were able to get out of the way in time, and more often than not, they weren't. But that didn't matter all of the sudden seeing as they had reached the hospital. Pierce swung the bulldog rapidly into the parking lot and tore the keys out of the ignition. He and Carlos flung themselves out of the truck and rolled onto the hot asphalt as a spray of bullets from an SMG hit the car. Carlos came to a stop between a white Topher and took cover behind it as more bullets richocheted off of the other cars in the parking lot. Pierce and Gat managed to take cover behind the Topher also, with Gat shouting out orders to the lackey Saints who were still trying to fight for their lifes.

Carlos flinched as he watched Gat put a young Saint out of his misery. The saint had been shot through the shoulders, legs, and stomach by the spray of bullets in the crossfire between the two gangs. One well aimed bullet to the head was all that it had taken to give the saint the release that his eyes had so desperately been begging for. Gat sighed as he turned back towards the main fight. He hated seeing the lackeys die so young, it was just a waste. Several shots later, the entrance to the hospital was clear. Gat grinned wickedly as he remembered when Raider had rescued him from the hospital, and how much shit that he'd given him about being an invilid. Damn, Raider was going to wish that he'd kept his goddamned mouth shut. The Saints were doing okay on the outside of the hospital, but inside room 313, things weren't doing as well.

Raider Brent, room 313

Raider Brent's ribcage was on fire due to the strain of wielding a gun when he'd been injured and the wound had become severely infected. He didn't know if he was going to make it out of the hospital but he knew that he was going to protect Shaundi and Dalila, or go out trying. The hospital room was a wreck, the mattress had been thrown in the floor to create makeshift cover, and the closet where all of the guns had been stored was on it's side. As soon as the first Samdei had entered the room, Shaundi had dispatched them with her rifle. She'd fought the urge to run to the bathroom and expel the contents of her stomach upon seeing the blood oozing out of the dead gang members bodies, and after smelling the afftereffects of their bodily fluids leaking out. Dalila had pushed the closet down with great effort and then had rushed to get her injured cousin and the girl who she guessed that he was dating to safety. Not long after, more waves of the Samdei showed up and the trio was in trouble.

The Samdei had a grenade, not one of the blow you straight to hell ones, but still a powerful explosive. Raider watched in stunned terror as they threw it in the general direction of his side of the room. He heard the grenade hit the wall and instantly grabbed Dilly and Shaundi by their arms and hauled them as far away from the ticking time bomb as possible . He waited for the explosive to go off, but it didn't. In his excitement, the Samdei who had thrown the grenade had forgotten to pull the pin out. Raider, ignoring the agony that moving quickly caused him, dove towards the abandoned grenade. He aimed it and threw it out the door of his hospital room, remembering to pull out the pin. He and the two women buried their heads behind the overturned closet and listened as the outer hallway was torn apart by fire. They heard the telltale sound of bodies hitting the floor and Shaundi leaned away from Raider and dry heaved until her throat was raw. Damn, being pregnant and killing people really wasn't as fun as killing people while not being knocked up. Dalila noticed Shaundi's discomfort and gave her younger cousin a knowing look, though she addressed Shaundi with her questions.

"You're pregnant, aren't you? And if you are, is it this handsome asshole right here's baby?" Shaundi grinned sheepishly, she was really starting to like Dalila.

"Yeah, you are a fucking genius. Both guesses were correct. And, he is an asshole." The two women smiled when they saw Raider's look of disgust, they loved seeing the way he set his jaw when his pride was hurt. But suddenly, Raider's look of disgust turned into a look of terror when he smelled Chlorform. He knew the scent well, it was something he had smelled the night that he had found Dalila. He knew that the same realization had come to her mind when he saw the look of ultimate terror on her face just before she fell forward. Raider fought to remain conscious as the gas weakened his awareness. He fought even after Shaundi fell forward, her head landing beside his foot. He didn't let himself fade into blackness until he could have sworn that he heard a familiar spanish accented voice yell,

"I see them, and I they're alive!"

Then for the second time in a short period of time, Raider felt himself slip into the deep blackness of being unconscious. Only, this time he didn't fight it. He welcomed the release from his pain.

A/N I am sorry for the probably screwed up quality of this chapter, it was written on my new laptop (sadly not published on it ) because I don't have internet, so my phone had to do the job. Please review!


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